Exile Vilify
by NikoArtagnan
Summary: Five years after the events of Portal 2, Chell has somehow managed to find a normal life. But when her roommate and the husband of a friend vanish inside Mount Massive Asylum, it's up to our stoic heroine to rescue them and bring light to the conspiracies that could end the world as she knows it. AU, crossover with Outlast
1. Chapter Zero - Freedom

**Exile Vilify**

Five years after the events of Portal 2, Chell has somehow managed to find a normal life. But when her roommate and the husband of a friend vanish inside Mount Massive Asylum, it's up to our stoic heroine to rescue them and bring light to the conspiracies that could end the world as she knows it. AU

* * *

Picture By Talianne on DeviantART, with edits by myself.

**Author's Note:** I don't know what I'm doing. Really I don't. I just want to see Chell be awesome some more. And good Lord, I have a crush on the two protagonists of _Outlast_ like you wouldn't even believe.

I watched Pewdiepie and Markiplier play the game, then I went out and played it myself, after doing the same (albeit with different LPers) for _Portal_.

_Outlast_ is a _very_ messed up game. I managed to get through it and _Whistleblower _by the skin of my teeth. It's a raw, gritty, gory, hair-raising, blood-curdling game with sci-fi/fantasy elements, and absolutely unreal scenery and fascinating characters.

_Portal_ is an unbelievably enjoyable game with an excellent storyline, amazingly fun (and frustrating) puzzles, the portal gun (I want one so very, _very_ much), and some of the best characters and voice acting ever.

_I fucking love these games so much._

**Warnings:** Canon-Typical Content (for _Outlast_, though toned down just a hair), foul language, story is not beta-read, abuse of italics, lots of flashbacks, alcohol abuse, cameos of other series, non-canon pairings, mentions of suicide, angst, child abuse, misogyny, and other lovely things. Timelines will be messed with considerably, to make things fit. Regarding the events of Half-Life…I am not completely familiar with them, so they will not have a substantial role in the story. The sort of storyline I'm aiming for is that the Xen Empire did try to invade, but were driven back and out of the humans' Universe.

Also, the first chapter, it jumps around a bit, time-wise.

A final warning…At first the story will have a K+ rating. Then it will go to T+ rating. Then it will go to M.

* * *

**Chapter Zero:**

_Freedom_

…Or, Rather…

_Beginnings_

* * *

The sky was blue. Not the neon-blue as some of the machinery back inside Aperture, but an unreal, soft sort of color that made her eyes ache to look at for too long.

The sun was a blinding yellow, and its heat was almost too warm on her sweaty and bruised skin, but with the fresh breeze that ruffled and bent the waves of light-colored plants around her, it felt just right.

She ran her fingers through the plants - grain, she thought it was called - and began to walk, Companion Cube resting on her shoulder. Slowly, dazedly, like a person still trapped firmly within the confines of a dream.

She walked for an endless amount of time, it seemed like, before exhaustion drove her to her knees before a large kind of crooked tree. She dropped the Cube there and flattened to the grass, rolling onto her back.

A bird was singing high in the tree above.

The sound was soothing and blessedly without the faint, metallic tinge of inhumanity Her songs had. It was also the best of lullabies, and she felt her eyes begin to close as her body rushed to grab the first real sleep it had had in years.

She welcomed the darkness rushing in like an old, old friend.

* * *

It had taken a day and a half – by what the sun and moon told her – to reach the first signs of civilization. She felt very odd doing it. Strange, twitchy. Everything – from random sounds to twigs breaking to the sounds of animals – made her jump and stiffen and search franticly around, but she'd reached it.

A road. Topped with black stone of some sort.

She didn't remember what it was called.

That was probably a bad thing.

Perhaps Wheatley had been right? Talking about "a minor case of brain damage" on and on-She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as the very familiar anger raged up bright and hot in her chest, flavored at the edges with the bitter sting of betrayal.

No, she would not think about the little robot that had all but stabbed her in the back.

She stood on the road, blinking at the rough feeling on her callused feet. How long had she been down in Aperture?

How many years? Did she have a family out here? Were they all dead?

What even was her name?

Well, it was _Chell_, obviously, but had she had a middle name? A last name? Had she been married? - that thought made her stop and chuckle, a tiny wheeze of sound in the still morning air. No, she wouldn't have been married.

She shrugged, and, picking a direction, began walking alongside the road.

* * *

A loud, noisy thing stopped a little behind her. It was a dark red, long, with round things on each side that propelled it along.

It was only the sight of the person who poked their head out that kept her from running back into the forest in fright from the bellowing machine.

_Automobile, _her mind supplied._ It's an automobile._

A man, gray haired and bearded had leaned out the window to call to her. A human. _He was human._

"You all right there young lady?" He called. "Do ya need a ride somewhere? I'm heading to Trenton myself, and I'd be happy to take you."

He was the first human she'd seen in a very long time. Could she trust him? Should she trust him? After that hellhole, she wasn't exactly all too willing to do that again.

The first time she'd believed in someone beside herself, he had ended up punching her down over seventy stories into the abyss of Aperture.

But she was still tired. And why should she waste energy walking?

"Come on, lass! Do you want a ride or not?"

She nodded and walked closer. If the man turned out like Wheat-to have an alternate agenda, then it would be simple to defeat him. Simple to neutralize him.

His arm was hanging out of the open window, resting along the side of the truck. It was dark and tanned, threaded with big blue veins. Acting on impulse, she grabbed it. It was warm and strong in her hands, callused as her feet were, from hard and heavy labor. She ran her fingers compulsively along the flesh.

_Human_ flesh. It was so warm. Unlike the coldness of metal or the faux-life of artificial intelligences.

She heard a soft chuckle and looked up, to see the man smiling at her. It was warm and real, as real as the skin under her hands, but there was sadness in his dark brown eyes and _understanding_.

"You've been through a lot, haven't ya, lass?"

She felt something clog in her throat and sting the back of her eyes.

"Get in the back of the trunk. You and yer…box thing."

She slowly clambered up, and lay down flat, her right hand resting firmly on the Companion Cube. The clouds seemed to move along with the truck's ungainly gait, tiny puffs of white that glimmered in the burning blue sky.

* * *

The town of Trenton was a small one, with a population of 1,300, a farming community that had survived the incursion of the Xen Empire with little loss, though the lands around the town had been all but obliterated. But time, and Nature's own innate strength had begun to take back the ravaged earth, and the farmers and gardeners of Trenton had hurried along that process with their own patient courage and quiet implacability.

It had made them a national treasure, and it necessitated a series of scientists that had all but invaded their privacy, taking samples of the soil and questioning the people of Trenton, who bore their questioning with patience, but were more than happy to see them go to other towns after a few decades.

The people of Trenton were a hardy bunch, overly curious, yes, as small town folk often were, and maybe a tad suspicious, but still warm and welcoming, especially to a lone girl who looked as though she had been run through a meat grinder, and couldn't look less like a scientist if she tried.

Chell clambered out of the back of the truck, Companion Cube tucked under one arm, to be greeted by a growing crowd of a couple dozen of people, who all greeted the gray-haired man who'd given her the ride, all the while keeping one eye on her.

"Hey, Rob! Welcome back."

"How was the meeting with the bigwigs?"

"Did you tell to 'em to bug off?"

"Are they goin' to be sending more scientists?"

The questions came hard and fast, but the old man – Rob - fielded them with the expertise of long years and with the mix of cordiality and irascibility that appealed to these Midwestern folk. A woman came from the strange house they'd stopped in front of. It was made from some red material, like the same color of the truck, and seemed to tower into the sky, with glass pane windows and white at the edges.

Rob had managed to make his way over to Chell, and began to guide her to where the woman waited at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the front door.

The woman still had the vestiges of a great beauty in her time-worn face, the folds and creases doing little to take away from the lively brightness of her blue eyes, the soft smile that played on lips surrounded by multiple laugh lines, and the sleekness of the long silver braid her hair was twisted into.

"Well, Rob, who's this you've brought to us?"

He leaned down and gave her a hard kiss, making her giggle and whack him away.

"A fine greeting you've given me, Mary, after I've been gone for several weeks," he teased back, guiding both women up the stairs and away from prying eyes.

Chell couldn't stop looking around, her feet moving mechanically up and down on the stairs. There was so much greenery here. Enormous, droopy trees framed the house in the back, and the ground was covered in unevenly cut grass.

It felt so strange. There was wind here, real wind, not the recycled, adrenaline-infused air GLaDOS poured through the labs. It made Chell feel a little sleepy and a little stupid. The wind carried on it the taste of growing things, of Life, and something strange and undefinable that seemed to cling to all of the people she'd met, no matter what other smells clung to them, a musky, earthy scent.

She nearly tripped as her feet kept climbing, though there was no more stairs left. Rob caught her, and kept her from doing a face plant.

"Whoa there, lass. You all right?"

"Come on, Robert, let's get her inside. She looks dead on her feet." The two of them propelled Chell into the house, shutting the door behind them.

Mary curled an arm around Chell's shoulders and guided her up another set of stairs to the second floor.

"You need a shower, dear. I'll bandage your cuts after you're done and we'll get some food into you. How does that sound?"

Her stomach let out a horrendous sounding snarl, and Chell felt her cheeks heat as the woman laughed. In Aperture, all she'd been able to scavenge were the overgrown potatoes and occasional packets of dried food she could find in the few times when GLaDOS hadn't been breathing down her neck.

Something creaked behind her and she whirled, to see Robert coming up the stairs with some cloth-looking things in his arms.

She breathed a little unsteadily, feeling Mary put an arm back around her shoulders.

"It's all right, dear," she said soothingly. "You're among friends here. You aren't the first stray my husband's brought home in his years."

Speaking softly, she guided Chell to a room with a bathtub and shower and guided her over to it.

"Now, dear, if you need anything, I'll be downstairs in the kitchen. Your room is connected to the bathroom through this door," she gestured at the door beside the sink and next to the one window, "I'll bring you clothes and things, and some food. How's that sound?"

Chell opened her mouth, but only the faintest of wheezes came from it. She tried again, with no result.

Mary shook her head. "Can't talk, can you, love?"

Chell shrugged, rubbing the back of her neck and Mary smiled, before leaning in and pressing a kiss to the shorter woman's forehead. Chell jerked in reflexive shock.

The silver-haired woman rested a deceptively frail hand on younger woman's shoulder and squeezed it.

"Get into the shower. There should be plenty of hot water to cut away all that grime. We'll throw your clothes out in the trash later. I'll put your box in the room." She turned to the knobs and turned the water on hot, sending clouds of steam through the room.

With a decisive nod, the woman left the room, and Chell turned to the shower, shucking the sweat, grime, and blood stained clothes off. It would feel so good to have a shower. She stepped under the stream and sighed in relief.

She didn't know why these people would be helping her. What did they gain from helping a stranger? Opening their home to someone who could very well be dangerous, giving her clothes, food, a place to rest her head.

She rested against the wall, letting the water pour over her body and face. It didn't matter. If these were people who could and would help her, she'd be stupid not to take advantage of it.

Chell was many things, but stupid was not one of them.

* * *

The room had obviously belonged to a female, and a young one at that.

The walls were a very pretty mint-green color, and the furniture in the room was all white. There was a bed covered in a mint-green comforter with two small cabinets on either side to her right. There was a white desk with a large mirror attached to it resting against the far wall, one which her Companion Cube rested. She walked over to it and rested a hand on its surface, strangely comforting amidst all the lack of metal in the room.

There were a couple of bookshelves framing the large window and window seat to her left, and the shelves were stuffed fairly full with books.

She felt a strange itching in her fingers, as if she wanted to get her hands on each tome. Had she been a reader, before she became a test subject?

She turned to the clothes on the bed. A dark blue, long-sleeved shirt of some unbelievably soft material, and a long, flowing tube of a dark white color that felt like the same material in her Aperture Laboratories shirt. Next to that was a white sports bra and panties.

_It's a skirt._ A distant voice in her mind said._ The shirt's made from cashmere._

She's not sure what cashmere is, and she's equally unsure if she's the type of person to wear a skirt, but whatever. They're just clothes.

She hung the towel she had used to dry her hair and body off on the bedpost, and quickly got dressed. The skirt dragged a little on the floor, and the shirt was a bit too long, but it was serviceable. And it felt wonderful on her skin, the soft material.

There was a picture on the nightstand closest to her. She picked it up, and felt her eyes widen. Standing in front of this same house was Robert and Mary – younger, and smiling bright as the sun. Standing in front of them were two teenagers, a boy and a girl. They both had dark brown hair, while the girl had Mary's blue eyes and the boy had Robert's steel gray ones.

Those must be Robert and Mary's children.

What had become of them?

Was that why the two of them were helping her?

Her belly chose that moment to interrupt her musings with a growl that echoed through the room like a gunshot. She jumped, then felt heat burn in her cheeks, before setting the picture back down.

The door opened, and Mary backed in, holding a heavily laden tray in her arms. She turned and saw Chell.

"Oh, good, you're done. I brought you some food and a notebook to write down what you want to say, if you feel like communicating." She set the tray on the bed and handed Chell a small notebook from the pocket of her jeans and a pencil.

She flipped it open.

"Do you want to tell me your name, dear?"

She owed them that, at least. _Chell_, she wrote, in shaky letters. It was strange, getting used to the feeling of a writing utensil in her hand, but it was a comforting one. Strange, but comforting. She showed Mary the name, and the woman nodded.

"Is it pronounced like the word 'shell', dear?"

Chell quickly scribbled down her reply. _Yes, but with more of a 'ch' sound in the front._

Mary smiled. "Chell, then. Now, dear, sit down and I'll bandage your cuts." But the elderly woman blinked when she saw there was not a scratch on her. "Strange," Mary mused. "I could have sworn you were cut up pretty badly."

Chell felt a prickle of unease run down her spine, and quickly showed Mary what she'd written.

_I've always healed very quickly. And I wasn't that bad off, anyway. Thank you, though._

The silver-haired lady gave her a pensive look, but eventually nodded. "As you like. Now eat, Chell, you're food's getting cold. After you eat just set the tray and dishes outside the room. After you've gotten some sleep you can tell me and Robert what you think we should know, and we can get something sorted out."

As she turned to walk out, Chell coughed to get her attention and held out a slip of paper. Mary took it.

_Why are you helping me?_

Mary looked at Chell, her eyes sad and somehow seeming to see straight through her.

"…You've been through a great deal of pain. I can see it in your eyes. You've a great deal of strength in there, too, and I can tell that's what got you through whatever hell you've endured. You aren't one to depend on others…You remind me a great deal of my grandmother. She had the same eyes you did…You have had few people in your life care for you. You deserve someone to take a little of your burden for a while."

Mary turned to the door and left, leaving Chell sitting there in quiet contemplation even as she mechanically began to eat the food.

* * *

She sat at the table, head down, as Mary finished reading the last of the paper Chell had written down her experiences in.

She could tell Robert and Mary were looking at her.

"Rob, take this," Mary ordered. "Throw it in the fire. I don't want people knowing she's one of the Lost Ones. I'll need you to spread some rumors that she's a displaced orphan from the Xen Empire invasion. Even now we've still got hundreds across the country trying to find a home, what with the military having bungled it up so completely. It won't be too hard to sell the story. And we'll also need to get her some paperwork, so that if anyone does come looking, it will be very hard indeed to prove that she's one of them. I don't want the military getting a hold of her."

Rob stood up, the papers in his hand. "I'll put it in the fire and go talk to Frank, he'll help us out."

Mary put a hand on Chell's. "We'll help you, dear. Let's come up with a middle and last name, so we can give those to Frank."

_What's yours? _Chell wrote.

"I don't think you should use that, as people know well we don't have any from the Xen invasion who could call us kin, but it's Upshur. Mary and Robert Upshur," the blue-eyed woman said, and Chell felt the slightest hint of foreboding trickle down her spine at the name.

* * *

_Chell Lee Vargas_.

It was a simple name, but seemed strong, too. It was common enough so as not to be too noticeable, no matter where she went, but just unique enough to be hers.

_Chell Lee Vargas._

She couldn't remember her real name. For as long as she could remember, it had always been **[REDACTED]**.

Now she had a real name, a full and complete one.

She sat on the windowsill, looking at the paper she'd written her name on. Then she looked out to the sun, just starting to rise.

It had been over two months since her escape from Aperture.

A new day was dawning.

And Chell smiled.


	2. Chapter One - Life So Far

**Exile Vilify**

Five years after the events of Portal 2, Chell has somehow managed to find a normal life. But when her roommate and the husband of a friend vanish inside Mount Massive Asylum, it's up to our stoic heroine to rescue them and bring light to the conspiracies that could end the world as she knows it. AU

* * *

**Author's Note:** So yeah. _Italics_ signifies sign language. These first couple of chapters are basically the prequel to _Outlast_ and _Whistleblower. _Chapter 2 or 3 will start about the same time the game starts.

Please read and review, and tell me if I've kept Miles, Chell, and the Park family in character.

**Warnings:** Foul language, mentions of racism/sexism, massive retardation of geography in New York because it's just another thing I really, really suck at, bisexual character.

* * *

**Chapter One:**

Life So Far

* * *

"And get out!"

Chell closed her eyes and stomped away, still covered in bits of spilled beer and day-old cheesy nachos, feeling her ribs still ache from the blows she'd taken.

She had known this was going to happen.

It had been a shitty job, after all.

But it was so completely unfair.

She'd put up with days of being 'accidently' groped and pinched by those who frequented the bar she had worked at, hadn't she? She'd put up with the derogatory comments concerning her skin color and the fact she couldn't speak, hadn't she?

There was the unforgiving crack of thunder across the night sky, and Chell barely had enough time to dive into the bus stop on the corner before the heavens opened and let loose a torrential amount of rain.

She'd been the best fucking worker in that entire forsaken bar, and she'd been fired for refusing to let a bunch of the owner's friends sexually harass one of the younger girls.

…And for starting a bar fight, but that was neither here nor there.

There was the sound of a car horn, and Chell looked up, to see a dark blue coupe pull up in front of her. The back door opened, and Chell felt a smile curve her lips for the first time in over 24 hours. She quickly dove into the back seat and shut the door behind her.

She clambered into the passenger seat and turned to look at the dark-haired and eyed man sitting beside her.

_Thank you._ She signed to him.

Miles Upshur reached out a hand and gently touched her cheek, careful not to touch the swelling black bruise around her eye. _You're hurt._ He signed back. _What happened? Celeste just said you got fired, and would need a ride home._

Chell winced as she hooked the seatbelt around her bruised ribs. _Started a bar fight because the owner's friends decided to molest a new girl. Took a few shots to the ribs and eye. My ribs aren't broken, just a little banged around. The other guys look a lot worse._ She smirked as he let out a snort.

_I'd expect no less. Let's get you home and bandaged up, and you can tell me everything._

She curled her hand around his and leaned back against the seat.

_Thank you, Miles, _she signed, and felt his hand tighten around hers.

_No problem, Chell._

* * *

She hadn't expected it to work out so well.

Trenton had been getting a great deal of return governmental notice as her first year in the sleepy little town had begun to come to a close. A surprising amount, and more than one of them had raised some eyebrows at Chell's presence.

Mary and Robert had been successful in driving them off and averting their attention, and Chell's paperwork had also managed to alleviate the suspicion that had come at her, but the three of them had decided it was best if Chell kept moving.

In New York, the Upshur's eldest son made a living as a reporter. His parents knew he needed a roommate that could help pay the rent, and talked to him about letting Chell stay with him.

He had agreed, but only grudgingly.

Chell had made her way to New York, and had discovered something amazing.

Miles Upshur was as mute as she was. And better yet, he knew sign language.

She had taken it on herself to badger him into teaching her. He'd eventually capitulated.

There had been fights, of course. Throwing-everything-in-sight-at-the-other-person fights and little snippy ones full of brimming frustration, after Chell would come home from the unemployment office tired and defeated and still horribly confused about herself and her bouts of amnesia and Miles would be steaming from the ignorance and patronizing looks he got from the others at his office, or when her lessons were going poorly, and the two of them would just glare at each other.

For two people who couldn't talk, they could still have a _fearsome_ argument if they wanted to.

But as Chell began to master sign language, they'd discovered that each other's presence wasn't nearly as bad a thing as they had once thought.

Miles didn't ask too many questions about Chell's past before she had met his parents and respected her need for solitude and almost obsessive love of exercise. Chell didn't see the need to bug him when he had was working and never mooched off him.

But when either one wanted company, the other could and did provide it.

It felt good, to have someone who didn't mock them or act patronizing, even unintentionally so, to just sit on the couch and watch Food Network TV with.

It was still a tad mind-boggling to Chell, but they had become friends.

Chell winced as Miles finished wrapping her aching ribs.

_They really did a number on you._ Chell could tell Miles was starting to get angry, and put a hand on his shoulder.

_Miles, it's fine. Like I said, those bastards wound up a _lot_ worse than I did._

He sighed and nodded. _Fine._

She tapped him on the shoulder before he could stand. _One of them started crying._

Amusement sparked in his gray eyes. _Really?_

_Yeah._

Miles let out a muffled wheeze of laughter. _You're terrifying, Chell, you know that?_

_Of course._

He pulled her close and rested his forehead against hers for a brief moment, before standing up and pushing her back down against the pillows.

_Go to sleep. You can tell me the rest in the morning._

Chell leaned back and closed her eyes. Sleep came easily.

* * *

The day was warm as she jogged down the concrete path, her mind already lost in the repetitive monotony of her daily routine.

She had to find another job. Miles hadn't gotten on her about it, but she knew it had been tough paying the rent even before she had gotten there.

Chell sighed and stopped to take a drink of water from the water bottle she had attached to her belt.

It _burned_, to not have anything to do and to know she was being a burden on the one person she could call a friend.

She would just have to spend another fruitless week at the unemployment office, trying not to lose her temper as she dealt with clerks who treated her like she was three and the mounting frustration at seeing those with less than half of the skill and youth she could bring to the table given jobs she should have had because she couldn't speak.

She shook herself out of her funk and continued on her way, leaping over benches and obstacles in her way with the ease and grace of a seasoned parkour specialist.

A muffled sob interrupted her thoughts and she paused, looking around for the origin of the sound.

There was a bench by the side of the path, a rusted thing that had probably been there for years. Chell cocked her head, because she could see a faint form hunched behind it, shaking. It was from the small figure that the crying was coming from, Chell realized, and slowly made her way over to it.

She peered behind the bench and felt an eyebrow raise. A little child with a head of blond hair, no more than four at the most, was curled up there whimpering into his or her khakis. The child jerked and blues eyes widened when he or she looked up and saw her.

Chell could easily tell the little one was in pain and she quickly saw why, spotting an angry red cut that still bled fiercely on its leg. He – and she could tell it was a he now – sniffled. "It hurts and I can't find Mama," he cries and Chell felt her heart burst with strange warmth.

She knelt beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder, before gently pouring the rest of the water from her bottle on the cut, washing out some of the dirt and grime.

"Owww," the little boy sniffled, but held remarkably still, even as Chell wrapped a clean bandanna from her pocket around the cut.

He ran his fingers over the blue cloth, before blinking up at her.

"It still hurts," he told her, rubbing his eyes furiously.

She nodded solemnly and looked around. Usually panicking mothers were fairly easy to spot. A gentle tug on her shirt made her look back down at the little boy looking up at her with strangely trusting blue eyes.

"Are you going to help me find Mama?" he asked in a quiet voice and Chell felt like her heart was melting. She'd never been the most maternal of women, but this kid was enough to melt the coldest of hearts.

She nodded and stood up, holding out a hand to help the little one to his feet. He made another pained, whimpering noise, and Chell pulled him up into her arms before she even knew what she was doing.

It takes her a while, searching high and low with the boy in her arms as he tells her he saw _'a puppy and went after it, only to trip and fall and it hurt too much to find his Mama again'_, but eventually she sees the panic-stricken woman searching frantically, with a baby strapped to her back in a carrier, tears running down her face as she cries a name, over and over.

"Brendan! Brendan, where are you?!"

"Mama!"

At the cry of the boy in her arms, the woman's head jerked up and she all but fell up the incline to get to them, sobbing even harder now. Chell immediately passed off the boy – Brendan – to his weeping mother, feeling herself smile as she pressed kisses all over his face.

"Thank you," the woman said, looking down at Chell with watery eyes. "Thank you so much."

* * *

Lisa Park was a woman of surprising beauty. She was taller than Chell by a head, with a shining cap of dark red curls and her son's blue eyes.

She also knew sign language and knew it very well.

The two of them had been talking for some time, stopping to get some food to eat and continue their chat.

"My mother lost her voice because of an accident," the woman said, signing her words as she did. "My father made it all a grand game for us children and him to learn sign language with her. I kept it up, even after they both died. All of us did, though I'm the only one who actually teaches it. Part-time, though."

_You're very good at it_, Chell signed back, smiling as Brendan snuffled into his mother's neck, the baby resting between the two women.

Lisa sighed irritably. "I actually want to go back to teaching full time, but with my husband away a great deal of time, I can't afford to leave Brendan and Sammy."

Then her eyes lit as she turned to Chell.

"You told me you needed a job, right?"

Chell blinked, not quite sure what to do with this apparent non-sequiter. _Yes?_

"Obviously Brendan adores you and he trusts you – unlike all of the other babysitters and nannies we've hired. I'd have to talk to my husband and you would have to do the same, but I really think it would be a good idea! You told me yourself you were having money troubles and needed a job that didn't look down on you because of your disability. The job would only be part-time, and I'm flexible when it comes to days off and what. So, what do you think?" Lisa's smiling at Chell, like the sun has risen in those glorious blue eyes and Chell swallowed painfully, suddenly reminded of the fact that she had quickly discovered in the year after Aperture that gender didn't really matter when it came to those she was attracted to.

_Maybe…I don't know…_

Lisa grinned and quickly takes a piece of paper and a pencil from her diaper bag.

"Here, take my address and email and think about it, will you? Give it a week. Your salary would be an excellent one, I promise you. And even if you decide not to, keep in touch, will you?"

Chell rubbed a hand over her face of blue eyes turned up to her, because Lisa asked her son about how he felt about having Chell as his nanny and the kid nearly keeled over with excitement.

Chell was not used to having this much trust placed in her by people she just met.

(It feels nice.)

* * *

Miles looked at her and he asked her just one question after she came home from her meeting with Lisa and Waylon Park. _Do you like them?_

She thought about it for a long time, before she smiled. _I do. They're good people._

He nodded and turned back to the Food Network show they were watching, twining his fingers with hers. Tomorrow, she thought to herself. She would call Lisa Park and tell her that she would take the job.

There was a strange sense of foreboding trembling down her spine, just like the feeling she had felt when she had met Mary and Robert Upshur for the first time, but she brushed it off.

She rested her head on Miles's shoulder and dropped quickly into sleep.


End file.
